Daryl Yeo recalls the day in January 2013 when he learned of a clobazam shortage from an Epilepsy Ontario newsletter and had to contact his daughter, Lindsay, to ensure she had enough of the medication.
Lindsay, who lives with epilepsy, contacted her pharmacy only to learn it had run out of clobazam, which sent her scrambling to find a supply.
Eventually, Lindsay obtained the anticonvulsant medication, but for Daryl, the president of Epilepsy Toronto, this situation was another example of why national medication shortage notices needed to be mandatory.
Naturally, Daryl is pleased the federal government announcement Feb. 10 that mandatory online reporting for all actual and anticipated medication shortages by pharmaceutical companies is forthcoming.
For several years pharmaceutical companies have been able to voluntarily post medication shortages online at Drugshortages.ca, however, the limited response was not satisfying many in the health-care community, according to consultations conducted by Health Canada last summer.
“We’re very, very pleased that the government has finally concluded that the voluntary system just wasn’t working,” Daryl tells Voices of Epilepsy.
Daryl says the announcement is “a great first step” to eliminating some “unnecessary stress” people experience when they’ve not had ample time to secure medication supplies during shortages. But, he adds, it’s not a solution to the drug-shortage program. There needs to be work done to better manage drug shortages when they do happen, he says.
“There’s a lot more work that can be done there,” Daryl says. “Once one discovers that there’s a drug shortage … the question is still ‘what do I do now?’”
In the case of people with epilepsy, for example, many of the medications they take have no alternative.
“Now that we have mandatory notification when there is a medication shortage, what kind of system can we put in place to more effectively manage the shortages when they do occur – because they will occur,” Daryl says.
Currently, if a person’s pharmacy runs out of their epilepsy medication but they find another pharmacy with a supply, the individual must get their prescription transferred – but once it’s moved over it can’t be transferred back to the original pharmacy.
This is one of the things that needs to change to foster better drug-shortage management, Daryl says.
“But, hopefully, (the announcement) is the start of managing shortages better across the board.”
Epilepsy information specialist Suzanne Nurse underscores the importance of developing preventative measures to avert medication shortages.
“There must be two priorities for governments: prevention of drug shortages and better management for situations when a shortage cannot be avoided,” says Nurse, who also chairs the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance’s drug shortages committee.
“Ontario and other provinces have been working on management strategies, but so far this work has been related to hospital pharmacy shortages and has not addressed the needs of patients who encounter shortages at their community pharmacy.”
Writer: Deron Hamel
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